Last night when I got home I found out that the referendum for New Trier had not passed by a significant margin. I was a supporter of the referendum, and have some trouble understanding why some people were so vehemently opposed to the renovation. I can understand if people think that parts of the renovations were unnecessary because I too felt that way about parts of the project. However, I take serious issue with the fact that there are several areas in our school which are not handicap-accessible; I think that this is unacceptable. What if you're in a wheelchair and you want to take AP Art or be a part of an orchestra? Too bad, you can't do that. We get away with breaking all sorts of codes because our school was built before the codes were put in place; that in and of its self goes to show how old the school is. We eat lunch in a 98-year-old cafeteria that is not big enough to hold the student body, and has leaks in the roof. A friend in orchestra recently reported that they had to stop class when the roof started leaking even though they are not on the top floor of the building and it wasn't raining. To me, it is clear that our school needs work. Not to mention, if the referendum had passed we would have received partial government funding for the project, but now that we have voted it down and put it off, the grants will no longer apply making future project more expensive.
The other fact that severely bothered me is that numerous people I talked to could give no reasons behind their decisions other than the fact that they didn't want construction going on during their senior year and they didn't have any younger siblings so they didn't think it was worth it to have their taxes raised. Those, to me, are horrible excuses.
I know for some people this is still a touchy subject in some regards, and there are obviously plenty of people who were against the project, but I would really be interested in hearing what people think. Also, what were you basing your opinion on? Gut reaction or careful consideration?
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ReplyDeleteI personally was against the referendum but I will explain my reasoning. I agree with you that New Trier is not at all handicap-accessible, which I do think needs to be fixed. And I am not against renovating the school. I was against the plan that they had created. New Trier was asking for billions of dollars, and right now, that money is just not just lying around. Not many people can afford a tax increase right now, and especially people who have kids in high school. I mean, my parents have to send me to college in two years and my brother in three. All the parents have college expenses looming right over their heads. Also, they were asking for extravagent things that are not really necessary. Yes, the cafeteria could be redone, because it is quite small, and some bathrooms with stalls that you can look over could be redone as well. There are a lot of things that could be redone, but at minimal cost. It doesn't have to cost a billion dollars out of our parents pocket. Modesty is not something that New Trier is always good at. A plan that costs a lot less and only renovates what needs to be would go over a lot better in our community.
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